Our California Trip Day 2 ~ Oct. 17th Newport and Catalina

We were up before the sun to head north from San Diego up to Newport to catch the ferry to Catalina Island.  As you see by the pictures below, it was very foggy!

It's five o'clock somewhere, that's Richard's motto!

It was foggy right up to arriving at the Catalina, and then almost magically the fog disappeared to reveal the beautiful island.

We got on a tour bus which took us up a winding road and stopped occasionally for tourists to get out and enjoy the views. A very nice man from Scotland snapped this picture of us.

Buffalo roam the island. They were brought there for a movie many years ago and stayed afterwards. Now they are permanent residents of Catalina.

The highest point of Catalina is here at the airport. The funny part of arriving at this landmark is that it was here that we realized we accidently got on the wrong tour bus. Our tour was to last one hour and considering it took 45 minutes to reach the airport we knew that something was not right. The bus we got on was actually a two hour tour that took us all over the entire island, oops!

The airport had a little gift store and cafe. Below are pictures of the eating area and the view. The doggy above was sleeping as her owner had a sandwich.

Our bus stopped again on our decent down the mountain. We took the opportunity to snap a couple more pictures of the view.

Once off the tour bus we enjoyed walking around the city of Avalon in Catalina.

We stopped for a bite to eat at Luau Larry's. It gave Richard the opportunity to catch up on all the college football scores and me to rest my feet...I wore cute but not sensible shoes!

The view looking up and down the main street that runs along the harbor.

After a nice day on the island, we boarded back on the Catalina Express to head back to Newport. If we go back we will stay for a night in one of the several quaint, small hotels we found as we walked around the island.

This is what was waiting for us back in Newport, yuck!

To see more pictures of our trip then just click on any one of the following links: Coronado/San Diego Harbor, Hollywood/Santa Monica, Venus Beach/Disney, Pacific Coast Highway

Our California Trip ~ Day 3 Oct. 18 Hollywood and Santa Monica

We got to Hollywood in the morning and had time to drive around and found some beautiful homes in the Hollywood Hills.







If I we win the lottery you will find us here....





Then we took a drive on further up in the hills on Mullholland Drive. The views of the Los Angeles were spectacular!















Before heading up into the hills, we found a cafe/store off Laurel Cayon. We picked up drinks and some good sandwiches there.









We were typical tourists and headed over to Hollywood Blvd. and took in all the sites before getting on a double decker tour bus.

Ha, ha, ha...this is a funny picture I didn't even mean to take!







We got off the tour bus in Beverly Hills for a bit and stumbled upon an art festival. It was perfect California weather so we walked around people watching while admiring some exhibits.







We found time to stop and have drink before returning to the bus.











We got off the bus for a second time to have a hotdog at Pink's which was featured in an episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dive."







We spent an hour standing in line to get our hotdogs. My chili cheese dog was the winner and well worth the wait.











We ended our day at Santa Monica Pier. It was a beautiful night and perfect for a ferris wheel ride.

Below is where we tried to have dinner, The Lobster in Santa Monica. However, we didn't have reservations so we were put on "the list" and sat in the bar area, with very beautiful views, and had a couple of overpriced drinks. Forty-five minutes later we were seated, or I should say squished, into a corner where our view was the waiter's station and the doors to the kitchen. When we asked how long for a better (or I should say, acceptable) table, we were told it would be another hour or so. In the meantime our table in the bar had been taken and we were left with nothing but hungry tummies. :(

So, we stumbled, upon another Diners, Dive-In's and Dives featured restuarant, Baby Blues and had a wonderful meal. A bad situation made better by some Texas style barbeque, yumm...